Luc Schiltz as Capitani and Sophie Mousel as officer Elsa Ley in ‘Capitani’ on Netflix
Netflix
Produced by Samsa Film in partnership with RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg, Artemis Productions, with Film Fund Luxembourg, and then acquired by Netflix, the twelve-part series was a success in Luxembourg when it first aired on RTL in October 2019, attracting a record audience of more than 1.5 million views.
Created by Thierry Faber, Capitani is set in the village of Manscheid in northern Luxembourg, where the body of a teenage girl was found in the surrounding forest. Detective Luc Capitani (played by Luc Schiltz) is assigned to the case. However, the detective is not from the village and thus needs the help of the local police, and in particular, policewoman Elsa Ley (played by Sophie Mousel), who personally knows everyone involved in the investigation—it’s a small village.
On the scene where the dead body of the teenage girl was found, detective Capitani quickly concludes that it must be suicide after they find drugs on her. “The simplest explanation is usually the right one,” he retorts to the unconvinced Elsa Ley ho knew the victim. This is the first of many misconceptions the over-self-assured detective will make. There is, of course, nothing simple about this case. Capitani soon discovers a tight-knit community, wary of outsiders, where everyone harbors their own little secret.
‘Capitani’ on Netflix
Capitani functions like many very similar crime series. A dead body is found in the woods adjacent to a very small village, where everyone knows everyone’s business, and where gossip thrives. An outsider detective arrives to head the investigation, because none of the local police force is equipped to do so themselves. As the detective and his new team search for clues, they uncover layers of secrets kept by the villagers. All the lies the detective has heard eventually unravel to reveal how the person died. The premise of Capitani may therefore remind you of previous shows like Broadchurch or Twin Peaks (especially with the cabin in the woods storyline).
Capitani though also differs from these series in many ways. The discovery that the teenager, identified as Jenny Engel, has a twin sister, Tanya (both played by Jil Devresse), who is missing, complicates the investigation further. When Tanya resurfaces, she is unwilling to cooperate with the police, lying to them about where she was the night her sister died.
The backstory of detective Capitani also renders his character even more complex, and introduces a second storyline that runs parallel to the main crime investigation, without the use of any flashbacks. The series in fact opens with this secondary storyline, showing Luc Capitani using a pair of binoculars to watch policemen unearthing a body from afar. It will turn out that Capitani is in Manscheid on a personal mission.
Luc Schiltz as detective Luc Capitani in ‘Capitani’
But even with his backstory, Luc Capitani is a character difficult to sympathize with. He is portrayed as a detective with a bit of an attitude. As well as being condescending toward his colleagues in the local police, he also seems to be constantly annoyed and/or angered by everything and everyone, going as far as lashing out on witnesses to force them to tell the truth. As the series progresses, Capitani is not a character that grows in likeability, unlike his partner, local officer Elsa Ley, who turns out to be a much more interesting character.
Whether you sympathize with the main character or not, Capitani proves to be a very well-paced series with complex storylines, slowly letting all the lies and secrets surrounding the small village unravel. With each episode ending with a cliffhanger, it may lead you to binge the whole twelve 25-minute-long episodes, especially as the list of suspects keeps extending as the series unfolds. A second season is already in preparation.